Penny Marie, (NZ)more than a “content provider”. She’s a strong women with a tempered steel forged by challenges, based in New Zealand. She comes from a communications and marketing background but has turned to use her talents not only in posting some amazing blogs, but starting an important initiative called Let Kids Be Kids. She’s passionate about truth-telling but in a centered heart-space way with no compromise. Her words of wisdom help remind us to stay compassionate in a troubling world of divergent paradigms. Only through love will change for the better happen. I particularly love a couple of her statements in this interview, One simple truth is “someone’s entry point to the truth can be from most any topic, and secondly, not to be judgmental of our fellow human beings. She was recently interviewed on the Jim Ferguson Show (UK). She’s a woman with vision born of this historic time.
Penny Marie interview w/Jim Ferguson
Reuniting and Healing: Overcoming Family Divisions in the Wake of Vaccine Mandates
It was a profound and stirring moment to engage in a deep conversation with Penny Marie from New Zealand, a passionate voice associated with the United Free Press. Our discussion unveiled the alarming issues plaguing mainstream media – their complicity in masking corruption and their blatant disregard for the truth. Read the rest of this story and go to the interview here:
Before lock-down, here on the South Island of New Zealand, we were quite busy renting out our accommodation to AirBnB guests from all over the world. We enjoyed meeting people from Italy to the US, from China to India. Since lock-down, we’ve been getting bookings from individuals and families here in New Zealand, who want a “digital detox”, or to reset their perspective on life. There’s a huge demand for going within, and reconnecting with one’s self, with others and with nature. Humbly, I think we do that well here at Mountain Spirit. We’ve been at it for a while and are excited to share our space and experience. Amanda offers wonderful and centering YinYoga classes. Randall offers re-connection through “solo’s”, sailing and other experiential activities. Randall worked with Outward Bound for many years, then a mountain guide in South America for Alpine Ascents International, leading climbers up peaks in Peru, Argentina and Ecuador and has landed in New Zealand. Amanda has studied yoga most of her life, and spent some months in India practicing and learning. She most recently has been training under Sarah Powers. Come join us if you’re so inclined to dive into your inner world. We’re at mtnspirit.nz
Editor’s note: We host a weekly Sunday meditation here at Mountain Spirit New Zealand near Wanaka. Yesterday, it was my turn to host, and I re-introduced the simple three items of incense, flowers and a candle. The flowers especially are a great reminder to be grateful. I used to use the simple three items during my meditations after a family loss some years ago, and although I use them off and on, now I’ll make it a more regular thing. Its funny how simple things can bring you back on track even during the toughest of times. It’s all about gratitude. If you’ve not seen it, check out What the Bleep! movie which also served, and still does, as a good reminder to be grateful for what we do have. It’s along the same lines at the article below – showing, through science what the Eastern Mystics have known all along. Randall Richards
Neuroscience Reveals: Gratitude Literally Rewires Your Brain to be Happier
When you say “thank you”, do you really mean it or is it just politeness to which you give little attention? Neuroscientists have found that if you really feel it when you say it, you’ll be happier and healthier. The regular practice of expressing gratitude is not a New Age fad; it’s a facet of the human condition that reaps true benefits to those who mean it.
Psychologists Dr. Robert Emmons of the University of California at Davis and Dr. Michael McCullough of the University of Miami published a study in 2015 that looked at the physical outcomes of practicing gratitude. Read more…
In 370 schools across England, children will be taught how to meditate, techniques for muscle relaxation, and breathing exercises for mindfulness. The program is being conducted under a mental health study that the British government is running up until 2021.
Dealing with new and complex emotions can be mitigated by meditation and mindfulness. When children act out by kicking and screaming, very often it is simply because they don’t understand. Read More….
Half-way through my Outward Bound career, I starting introducing the concept of gratefulness by asking my students to name five things for which they were grateful. The five things didn’t have to be from their wilderness trip, it could be anything. It was an eye opener to see how some of them had a difficulty finding things in which to be grateful. They were just out of practice. So was I. These days, it’s been a daily question in our family, sometimes at the dinner table or while driving. It puts things in perspective, and not only for our 8yr-old.
Echkart Tolle states in his book Power of Now, “When you honor, acknowledge, and fully accept your present reality — where you are, who you are, what you are doing right now — when you fully accept what you have got, you are grateful for what you have got, grateful for what is, grateful for Being. Gratitude for the present moment and the fullness of life now is true prosperity. It cannot come in the future. Then, in time, that prosperity manifests for you in various ways.” (There’s more of this excerpt here.)
If quotes from Tolle aren’t convincing enough, a recent UCLA study should give you something to think about…
Neuroscience Reveals: This Is How Gratitude Literally Rewires Your Brain to Be Happier
From: Real Life Pharmacy
By Justin Brown
We often hear about the power of gratitude for creating a more positive and happy mental state. But did you know that gratitude literally transforms your brain?
According to UCLA’s Mindfulness Awareness Research Center, regularly expressing gratitude literally changes the molecular structure of the brain, keeps the gray matter functioning, and makes us healthier and happier.
By Holistic Life Foundation
School Sends Kids to Meditation Instead of Detention, with Amazing Results
Traditionally when children act up in school, they would get detention or they get suspended. An elementary school in Baltimore has a far healthier approach, read more…
Outward Bound recently published a piece entitled How to Learn Mindfulness from the Wilderness. I’ve been meditating since my early teens, and grew up spending most of my after-school hours in the woods and mountains of New Hampshire and later working for Outward Bound as an instructor and staff trainer. I’d spend weeks and months in the backcountry without site of a car or airplane in stunning mountains. After a week, the students and I were just starting to adjust to the quieter pace. After two weeks, we were in the groove and were in no rush to return to “civilization”. Teaching out there helped me see more of the quiet mind in myself, and in others. It was a moving experience to see others sink into themselves, the environment and to connect more with each other. So read on.. and enjoy this wonderful piece on connection, mindfulness and wilderness.
It motivated me to start Mountain Spirit USA in 1989 and then Mountain Spirit New Zealand with my wife on the South Island. How to Learn Mindfulness from the Wilderness.
By Outward Bound Blog On July 4, 1845, a 28-year old left his comfortable station in life and retreated to the woods. For the next two years, two months and two days, he lived in a cabin that he built himself, surviving on what he could gather with his own hands. His only companions were the books he brought, the birds on his window sill and the ruminations of his own mind. He lived alone and simply, recording his experience as he went along. His experiment was published under the title Walden and as you might know already read more…
Check out our new video which gives you an overview of what we’re up to, our goals and dreams to make Mountain Spirit a place where people can connect to nature, themselves and each other. The video was done by “The Master” *Ashley Leung. Ash did the ground work, all editing and production. Keep the good work Ash! Randall did the aerial footage, and Ash made magic with it.
*We feel very fortunate to have Ashley, his wife Autumn and their new daughter as family friends. We miss them them and look forward to their return to New Zealand.
Mountain Spirit near Wanaka, will be hosting Kirtana, a California-based singer/songwriter will be who performs at events with speakers such as Eckhart Tolle, Gangaji and Geneen Roth. She comes to the South Island for the first time to share her contemporary, sacred songs. She will be performing at St. Columba’s Anglican Church on Sunday, 12th, April from 3:00pm-5:00pm in Wanaka
Described as a ‘brilliant poet, marvelous songwriter and accomplished guitarist’, Kirtana best describes both her music and her purpose in sharing it is to “celebrate divine love and the truth of who we are.”
Randall and Amanda Richards, of Mountain Spirit, the newly created retreat centre, say, “We’re really excited to have Kirtana come to the South Island and share her music with us. It will be our first event. We’re still working on infrastructure on our land and permitting for other programs, so we were not quite open to host the event on-site. So when the Anglican Church agreed to have the event at their church, we knew it would be a great venue.”
Kirtana says she is thrilled to have the opportunity to share her music and divine exploration in concert with Kiwis. She will be performing songs from her newest CD “Unseen Grace”
Says Onethemagazine.com, “Kirtana has become one of the most highly sought after modern-day minstrels of non-dual awakening. Her voice and lyrics reach with vulnerable longing for the heart of God, while at the same time transmitting the discovery of that, the opening to that, and the final consummation within it.”
Tickets are $30 in advance, ($35 on the day). With a “Group of 5 offer” at $125 and can be purchased over the phone at Mountain Spirit 03-443-5669 or online at Eventafinda.co.nz For more information call 03-443-5669 or go to the event webpage at mtnspirit.co.nz
bookings from individuals and families here in New Zealand, who want a “digital detox”, or to reset their perspective on life. There’s a huge demand for going within, and reconnecting with one’s self, with others and with nature. Humbly, I think we do that well here at Mountain Spirit. We’ve been at it for a while and are excited to share our space and experience. Amanda offers wonderful and centering 
us if you’re so inclined to dive into your inner world. We’re at 
In 370 schools across England, children will be taught how to meditate, techniques for muscle relaxation, and breathing exercises for mindfulness. The program is being conducted under a mental health study that the British government is running up until 2021.
Mountain Spirit's Blog 